Kordell Stewart on Steelers days: 'Nothing to put my head down about … I'd do it exactly the same way' - TribLIVE

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Few athletes had as volatile of an existence in Pittsburgh as former Steelers quarterback Kordell Stewart.

Wild popularity and praise upon his arrival. To scorn, criticism and failure.

Then a renaissance. Then he was discarded for Tommy Maddox.

Now he’s perhaps better understood nearly two decades after his departure at the end of the 2002 season.

In the 15 years since his last snap in the league, Stewart has often spoken about gaining a sense of appreciation for his time in Pittsburgh and being at peace with his legacy as a Steeler.

That appreciation is now something which appears to have blossomed into fondness.

Stewart spoke at length about his days in Pittsburgh with CUSportsNation.com — a website that covers his alma mater, the University of Colorado.

“There’s nothing to put my head down about,” Stewart said. “It was a great run, a great opportunity, I had a tremendous amount of success, but also some failures.”

Chief among those failures were three consecutive non-playoff seasons from 1998-2000 and six interceptions over the course of two home losses in AFC Championship games (1997, 2001).

“That’s what makes the successes so much more special, is when you can bounce back,” Stewart said. “If I had to do it again, I’d do it the same exact way. That’s how much fun it was and that’s how much excitement there was.”

The regrets for Stewart about his Steelers days now seem more about being close to but never winning a Super Bowl ring in Pittsburgh, rather than the rough fan treatment he received during losing seasons and after pivotal losses.

“I always look back on (my years with the Steelers) and think, ‘dang, we got so close … But it was a lot of fun. I wish I would have stayed (in Pittsburgh) a little bit longer — I wanted to retire a Steeler and I didn’t want to go anywhere else, but obviously it’s a business and a multitude of other things take their course and cause you to go separate ways.”

Another area of constant debate in Pittsburgh over his tenure was that of Stewart as an “athlete” versus being a “traditional quarterback.”

Today it sounds as if Stewart is more embracing of how his former “Slash” role (QB/WR/RB/Ret.) evolved into being looked upon as a forerunner of how quarterbacks can — and should — be all of those things.

That’s as opposed to what was — at times — the burden of the nickname indicating they had to be separate jobs in the late 1990s and early 2000s.

“I did everything — there weren’t any boundaries,” Stewart said. “There weren’t those traditional thoughts of how a football player should look or what you can or can’t do. You look at the game today, and you see that style of play at the quarterback position now. Back then, I was just being myself: a guy who was able to do whatever he wanted to do on the football field.

“But of course, the league was such a traditionalist organization, to where if you played quarterback, you were just supposed to be a quarterback. If you played receiver, you were just supposed to be a receiver.”

Yet, Stewart also told writer Justin Guerriero that the memories of how his “Slash” role came into existence still bring a smile to his face.

“To go into Pittsburgh, where there was a very traditional way of thinking and being, there was excitement for those first seasons, not just for the team but for myself,” he said.

During the interview, Stewart was exapnsive about his experiences learning against the great Steelers defenses of the 1990s, his long-standing relationship with his wide receivers, and a friendship that remains with former coach Bill Cowher.

You can read the post in its entirety in the link above.

Tim Benz is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Tim at tbenz@triblive.com or via Twitter. All tweets could be reposted. All emails are subject to publication unless specified otherwise.

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